A/N: Well… Sorry for not updating for an eternity, someone pm'ed me a request and I thought "Hey, this is the first time someone actually came and asked for specifically me to do something! I should be nice and do it immediately." And so I did. Well, maybe not exactly immediately and like more two weeks later, but still. I will now continue to update When Determination Runs Out like normal, and probably not do requests before that story is finished, because I ended up spending for frickin ever doing this. Also, I know there is some rather peculiar things in this story, I got a very specific request: .
So yeah enjoy nonetheless
The whole species of monsters has been fascinating to you since they got back to the surface. It's only been a few months since the barrier broke and even less since most of the monsters actually moved into the human society. Yet, you've already gotten to make friends with a few monsters. Specifically two weeks ago, you met an interesting young female spider. As a lifelong dream, she wanted start her own bakery. A project that you, by her request, decided to help her out with. Though ambitious and charismatic, she has a very poor business sense and tends to be rather childish at times. She definitely is talented when it comes to making pastries, but not as much in the financial and practical challenges that follow along with owning a business. Not really having any plans for your future, you happily obliged when she suggested you could help her out. Even if the night you met was rather strange, you still get along and enjoy each other's company.
As for the bakery, you found a decent place for it. It is need of renovation though. Which is why you're here in the first place. To cut costs as much as possible, you do everything you can yourselves. You certainly don't have a lot of a lot of expertise with construction, but you do feel competent enough do the simple things, like painting the walls. it's rather menial, but it's only temporary until the place is presentable enough to hold customers. With a bit of luck, you should be able to open up in the beginning of next week.
As you stand here, your thoughts start drifting off to the weekend when you originally met her. It's was at party at a mutual friend's place. The first Monster you befriended in fact. He's a pretty humorous guy nicknamed "Burgerpants". He invited you a small party he would be hosting the weekend. It wasn't anything huge, just you, him and a few other monsters. The thought of being the only human at an otherwise all monster party made you a bit nervous, but Burgerpants assured you it it wouldn't be a problem. True enough, you had a lot of fun. Even if most of the monsters got drunk and passed out before you had a chance to really get to know them. It was Burgerpants that got the amazing idea to turn an action movie into a drinking game, by taking a shot every time the main hero killed someone. Suffice to say, it didn't take long before everyone got drunk. Four monsters collapsed before the movie was even over, leaving only you, Bugerpants and the girl you now know as Muffet, to entertain yourselves for the rest of the night. By the time the movie was over, the time had just turned ten PM, leaving a lot of hours for the three of you to pass.
It's rather funny now that you think about it. The reason you got to know Muffet rather than any of the other guests, was simply because she was better at handling alcohol. It's certainly surprising, considering she looks like just a little girl. Now that you think about, she's never told you her actual age. Anyway, you still had a lot of fun.
After realising the three of you were the only ones still levelheaded, Muffet was the first to suggest you should play truth or dare. At the time it seemed like a great idea to get to know eachother better. And it was, for the first few turns. Though, unsurprisingly things started to get more ratchet as the game went on. Nothing too bad yet, but you did hear a couple of embarrassing stories and went through some pretty interesting dares.
You pull yourself out of your thoughts as a clanging sound indicates the door is being opened. Turning around, you find Muffet slowly coming in
"Hey, good to see you again." You greet her.
She smiles at your politeness "Good to see you too, how long have you been here for?"
"Had hard time sleeping morning, so I came here early."
"Don't overdo yourself, It means a lot that you even care to help me out."
"It's nothing, I'm glad to help."
"Still, you care take a break?"
A break didn't sound too bad around now. With a yawn you place down the paintbrush and turn back to her. "Yeah, sure thing."
The cool morning air quickly wakes you up as you step outside. It's still early in the the morning, so traffic isn't too isn't too bad yet. The sun has already dawned, giving the sky a dark blue color fading brighter towards the horizon.
"The sky is so pretty." You hear Muffet mutter
"Yeah, I guess it's easy to take for granted when we humans have always had it. It gotta different for monsters though, isn't it weird seeing the sky after all this time underground?"
"It's a change for the better." She says "I've gotten used to it."
As you notice some of Muffet's hands start fiddling with something purple, another find yourself reminded of the night again.
As the truth or dare game went on and the game everyone slowly got more daring, Burgerpants dropped the weirdest dare of the entire night. It was his turn to ask Muffet, and upon choosing dare, Burgerpants asked a pretty creative act of her.
"I want you to wrap ten spiders in cobweb and smoke them."
"That's seriously messed up dude." You commented
Without questioning it, Muffet grabbed around her hair and squeezed it as if trying to drain water from a towel. The sight confused you, until purple spiders started dropping out and forming a surprisingly big pile.
"Have those been in your hair the entire night?"
"Yep" She giggled and started counting ten of them out. After looking about done counting, she reached one of her other hands down to her underwear and pulled them a little down. Again, this confused you until her hand came back out holding a string of presumably cobweb. It took awhile for her to manage wrapping up all ten, but it eventually ended up solid enough to fulfil it's purpose.
"Do you have anything to light this with?" Muffet asked, looking at Burgerpants
"Here" Burgerpants digs a lighter up from his pocket.
Upon lighting it, Muffet takes a heavy rip and just sits there quietly for a moment.
"That's the strangest thing I've ever felt." She states with an expression that looks like she just saw a ghost.
"I can imagine." Burgerpants says "Know what? Pass me that shit, I wanna try too."
Muffet hands him the joint and he instantly grabs it and sucks a rip from it. Within seconds he starts coughing. "Fuck, it tastes like shit and charcoal." he laughs "You gotta try this too." He exclaims and hands it in your direction
"Nah, dude. I'm all good." You try to reassure him. Before any of you have the time to say more, Muffet takes it out of Burgerpants' hand and takes another suck from it.
"Seriously, this is so weird."
"Muffet?" You mutter. "Your panties are still down."
A familiar smell Burgerpants very accurately described as "shit and charcoal" wakes you back to reality again.
"Seriously Muffet, you gotta stop with that. Can't be good for you."
"Oh, just shut it and enjoy how beautiful the sky is."
She has point, this is a very pretty at this time of day. It almost looks like a rainbow the way horizon fades from red to orange, yellow green, and then blue. Being how busy your time can be, it's easy to forget to appreciate simple things like this. Ironic enough, last you stopped to appreciate the sky like this, you were with Muffet too. Yet another memory finds way back to you.
"What time is even?" Muffet asks aloud and rubs two of her left eyes.
"Shit AM or so. Look outside, it's even starting to get bright." Burgerpants mumbles
True enough, the sky outside was starting to show blue rather than just black. As soon as you both turned to look out the window, Muffet stood to her feet and came with a suggestion. "I don't know with you two, but now that it's getting bright anyway how about we get fresh air?"
"Sure, let's go outside. I could use air with actual oxygen." Burgerpants joke.
Seeing how six monsters and a human, in a small room with no open windows can generate a rather steamy and unpleasant atmosphere, getting some fresh air seems pretty appealing right about now.
As everyone agrees, you go outside and crash on a lawn behind Burgerpants appartment. Seeing how it's early morning on a sunday, the three of you are pretty alone outside. Luckily the silent solitary is nice considering the state of mind the three of you are in. The only sounds aside from yourselves is chirping birds and a few other natural ambiances.
"Hey, human?" Muffet's voice stands out.
"Yeah, monster?" You respond a bit jokingly.
She giggles a bit "Why are so many humans afraid of spiders?"
"I think it's some kind of protection instinct, some spiders are poisonous and so people that are afraid stay away from them. Though nowadays, it's pretty irrational. But still, we can't always help it. Why are you asking?"
"I'm hoping introduce spider pastries to humans." She smiles "I have a dream to open my own bakery one day."
"Spiders in bread and cake sounds like a pretty abstract idea to me, no offense. Have you considered things like health risks? Is there legal policies regarding spiders in pastries? Where would you even get such a big supply of spiders to sell in everyday food?"
A surprised look finds its way across her face as you asking away. "I… I didn't consider all that actually. You sound smart though."
"Thanks."
"Hey!" She perks up "How about you could help me figure all that out?"
And before you knew it, here you are. Almost ready to open up that very bakery she told you about. Things went awfully fast now you think about.
"Hey, when you're done daydreaming can we get back to work?" Muffet's voice is a bit playful.
"Sorry, I'll come now." You reassure her.
The whole idea of a spider based bakery still seems a bit abstract to you. Though, who knows, this could be the next big thing. Whatever the future holds, awaits to be seen.